That time I hung my lovely gold Barney Gumble sign in the kitchen but quickly had to find a new place for it thanks to its terrifying reflection pic.twitter.com/LneUnYrheO
Emily Cook, a video game producer, owns this lovely portrait of Barney Gumble from The Simpsons. Barney, the town drunk of Springfield, is delivering an ordinary beer-induced belch in the image, but its reflection resembles the haunted and terrorized soul of this broken man, whose potential is often alluded to but also shattered by alcohol.
The art is by British artist Alex May Hughes, who is noted for her shiny decorative signs. On her Instagram page, you can see psychedelic twists on The Simpsons and other sources of pop culture.
Brides all over get their ideas about weddings from American movies, in which the officiant ends with "You may now kiss the bride." That's not universal, and it isn't a part of the basic Catholic wedding liturgy. So this Irish priest walked away when he finished the wedding rites, but the bride reminded him about the kiss. Yes, that's what she's saying, although the accent had me thinking she was asking about "keys" at first. The priest responded in perfect fashion, and gave everyone who attended a reason to remember this wedding.
You might even get the idea that he didn't forget anything; he just wasn't used to telling a couple to kiss after their vows. But to give her what she wanted, he feigned forgetfulness with a humorous quip at his own expense. A good time was had by all. -via reddit
McDonald's is a fast food outlet, also called a restaurant, that is globally successful and has sold untold billions of hamburgers. Their real success is in expanding that chain and becoming the first fast food people think of. But like any successful corporation that has a long history, McDonald's has experimented with expanding beyond its core mission. That's happened over and over, and if Mickey D's weren't so big already, some of these projects could have spelled the end of the company.
Yeah, you know about McDonald's experimenting with the food, like the McPizza, the Arch Deluxe, and a burger with a slice of pineapple on it. But that's just food. McDonald's also tried out the McTrain, the McBarge, the McPlane, and the McUFO ...and more. Read about these ventures into putting the McDonald's name on something other than what they do best, and how each attempt gave them reason to stay in their lane, at Messy Nessy Chic.
Elora Explora owns a watersports center in Bonaire in the Caribbean. But before that, she lived in Belize, where she went diving almost every day. One day, she saw a tiny octopus and reached out her hand toward it. The octopus reached back! Another day, Elora found him again, and he seemed to remember her. Elora named him Egbert and they became friends. She brought him food and toys, and he would run to meet her. Uh, I mean swim to meet her, I guess. One time, Elora didn't get to dive for a whole week and she wondered if Egbert would remember her. Of course he did!
You can see more of the sweet interactions between the diver and the tiny octopus at Laughing Squid.
A woman onboard a Southwest Airlines flight from Nashville to San Diego shared her cute experience concerning a man on TikTok, which subsequently went viral. The lady, named Natalie, can be seen explaining the story in the video. "I'm already on the plane, and I see him getting on and think 'oh he's cute,'" Natalie shared. “And the entire plane ride I was thinking, 'should I shoot my shot?'”
And shoot her shot she did! She decided to wait until the very end of their flight to send a note so that she wouldn’t make him feel uncomfortable. "I didn't want to make it awkward so I waited until the very end," she explained. "I tapped him on the shoulder by the window, and he turns around and says 'oh did I drop this?" and I was like 'just open it.'"
The man read her note, which was scribbled underneath a printed message on a tissue that said “No one wants crumbs on their keyboard.” Natalie wrote, “If you’re single or interested, text me sometime.” She ended her message with a smiley face, her number, and her name. The “cute” passenger turned his head around and introduced himself to her.
In the end, the two hit it off and talked for an hour after getting off the plane. Natalie updated the masses that he is single and went on a date with her, sharing that it went well. “He did ask to see me again later this week so we'll see... and we joked about me shooting my shot," she added.
Let’s be real for one second: Twitter is going through some things right now. After the turnover to Elon Musk, the application has been experiencing some downfalls. From errors to Musk trying to capitalize on every single thing that made the platform popular anyway, it’ll be no surprise if Twitter will be abandoned should Musk and the people at the top continue to make bad decisions for its users.
Probably seeing Twitter’s downfall as an opportunity, other social media apps have been popping into existence, trying to be the next Twitter. Meta has put their own into the game, launching Threads. Pitched by the company as a “friendly” alternative to Musk’s platform. In response, the billionaire simply posted that "competition is fine, cheating is not."
Threads look and function similarly to Twitter. According to BBC News technology reporter James Clayton, the news feed and the reposting were familiar. If Twitter plans to sue Meta over this particular aspect, then they would have a hard time making their suit successful. This is because US copyright law does not protect ideas. Twitter has to prove that its own intellectual property, such as programming code, was taken by Meta.
It turns out that Twitter has plans of taking this issue to court. Semafor first reported that Alex Spiro, an attorney for the company, sent a letter to Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta. In the letter, Spiro accused Meta of "systematic, wilful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter's trade secrets and other intellectual property" to create Threads. "Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights, and demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information," the letter says. "Twitter reserves all rights, including, but not limited to, the right to seek both civil remedies and injunctive relief without further notice."
Here's a mega-list of funny films that will certainly give you ideas for what to watch this weekend. It's supposedly a list of "the funniest movie the year you were born" but I don't see how that makes a movie special among great films. All the listed movies that I've seen are indeed worth the time, and I want to check out some of them that I haven't seen. The funniest comedy of each year was determined by ratings on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes, with later movies also factoring in box office. Bonus: trailers are included.
Your opinions may vary, for the designation of "funniest," and even the categorization. I saw The Graduate during its initial run, although its been a long time, and I never knew it was supposed to be a comedy. For most of the years represented, it's hard to complain when you can't think of what other movies came out that year, but in 1987 I have to argue that Raising Arizona was much funnier than Moonstruck, which I also didn't realize was a comedy.
What if you staged a robbery and no one cared? A man tried to rob a nail salon in Buckhead, Georgia, near Atlanta. But no one paid any attention to him as he demanded money. The guy behind the counter was on the phone, and the waiting customers just ignored him. What did he expect? It's a nail salon; they probably didn't have much cash, since people pay with credit cards, and there's no expensive merchandise to take. He obviously had no weapon, even though he held his hand in a bag like he was trying to fool them into thinking he might have. The guy managed to grab one woman's phone as she left, but since he was getting nowhere, he just gave up and walked out. Police are asking the public if they can help identify the suspect, but if they catch him, you can imagine the giggles when the jury is shown the security footage. -via Boing Boing
They’re not poisonous, and their meat has been used in different kinds of dishes all over the world. The discussion has less to do with their edibility and more with their brains. The question on our minds is whether or not it is ethical to eat these eight-legged cephalopods. This is because they are known to be highly-intelligent sea animals, and just like us, have wildly varying personalities from individual to individual.
According to marine biologist Dr. David Scheel, not really. The Alaska Pacific University has been studying these animals for over two decades, and if there is someone who knows these cephalopods well, it’s him.
Dr. Scheel finds them more interesting alive than being a delicacy. However, he prefers it if people eat octopuses not because they are an exotic or weird treat they’ve never had before. It’s not their uniqueness that should make eating them questionable, but what kind of relationship people had with these animals before they chose them for their next meal.
“So the biggest concern for me is the kinds of things that we do to the animals that we raise for food,” he tells Salon in an interview. “If you're getting your food out of the wild, that's the beginning of the interaction in a way, right? Whereas if you're getting your food from farmers who raised them, then the interaction has been going on since that animal was born.”
This parental duo was strolling in Victoria, Australia when they stumbled upon a rare sight under a tree. The father and daughter spotted an unusual gathering of red-bellied black snakes at the base of the large hollow tree.
The two counted at least 12 of these deadly snakes. The animals also varied in size, ranging from 20 centimeters to around 1.3 meters. The walkers believed that there is a possibility that there were many smaller ones hidden from their sight at that time. A video of the larger snakes basking in the sun under the tree was posted on Facebook as well.
According to Kane Durrant, an ecologist at Wild Conservation, these snakes are gathered at the base of the tree not because they are mating, but because they are sharing a communal den over the winter months.“Snakes don’t go to sleep for the whole winter, they will come out periodically and bask in the sun, and also move around just to have a drink here and there,” Durrant told Yahoo! News Australia. “But usually they don’t venture very far from their den or from their hideout that they’ve found.
It’s definitely saying hello to the world. Also, impressive marketing stunt!
The MSG Sphere in Las Vegas lit up for a few minutes, flashing cascading red and yellow lights with the message “Hello World” on the LED screen. Designed by Populous, the Madison Square Garden Sphere is a $2.3 billion project expected to be the world’s largest spherical structure once it opens in September.
The structure is set to contain the world’s highest and most prominent LED screen, measuring 19,000 x 13,500 pixels. Set to open in September, rock band U2 will open up its Las Vegas residency in the MSG Sphere, and will perform on September 29 and 30. But let’s talk about its short stunt.
A video of the sphere went viral online on Twitter. This was when the building was first ever revealed to the public. At first glance, it looks like someone just dropped a mysterious gigantic orb in the middle of the desert paradise. To other onlookers, with how the messages and images flash on the screen, it seemed like a rotating ball of lava. Pretty cool, but also a bit baffling. “First animation of the MSG Sphere this morning,” one of the users commented. “This is going to be the coolest building in the world.”
The MSG Sphere will contain 18,000 seats and an HD screen that spans up to more than three football fields. We may be looking at the next concert venue for big artists in the years to come.
It happens quite often that old legends and folk tales turn out to have a grain of truth behind them, even if the details get muddied over time. We also read just the other day how classic archaeology can be very destructive, as in ruining a 1,000-year-old structure to find the 2,000-year-old structure underneath it. But new technology is finding a way around that.
In southern Mexico, in the city of Oaxaca, the much older Zapotec city of Mitla lies in ruins. In 1674 a Catholic priest described a bygone temple there as having four chambers above ground and four below ground in which the dead were buried. One of the underground chambers had a sealed entrance to the underworld, called Lyobaa. Spanish missionaries considered this heretical, so in 1533 they destroyed the temple and built churches in its place. The churches are still there, making exploration of the area impossible until now.
Ready for a brain teaser? In this puzzle from TED-Ed, you are the protagonist in a Back to the Future scenario. You have to go back in time to set some things right, but apparently you are not meant to get it right, because you from the future, uh, your future, is also there. This time travel paradox can be a bit confusing, but I think you can find your way out of it, at least theoretically. We really don't have time-traveling Deloreans. If you want to solve the puzzle on your own, stop the video at two minutes in. They will give you the answer and explain it thoroughly after that.
If you get confused, I have a clue, but only if you need it. Show clue
Don't even try to keep up with the facts about the time travel paradox. That's all a red herring to lead you off in the wrong direction. The actual riddle is much simpler. Now the problem is a lot easier, either because there are fewer facts to keep straight, or because (spoiler in the link) you've heard this riddle before.
Whether or not you solve the puzzle on your own, I think we can all agree that this would be a great premise for a full-length movie.
Every year, Duck brand duct tape awards scholarships to high school students who make their prom attire out of duct tape. There's a $10,000 scholarship at stake for the winner in both the dress and the tuxedo category in the Stuck at Prom contest, plus $500 goes to the four runners-up in each category. The 2023 contestants are in, and they've been winnowed down to the top five dresses and top five tuxedos. Now you can help decide who wins! See the finalists at this page. Click on the name to bring up their story and more pictures. Clicking on the image indicates a vote, but your selection can be changed up until you register your vote with the button on the bottom of the page. You can vote for one dress and one tuxedo every day until July 12. But what of the contestants that didn't make the top ten? You can see eleven pages of them in a gallery here. -via Boing Boing
— Solo para Curiosos (@Solocuriosos_1) June 25, 2023
A domino shot is exactly what it sounds like- a series of cocktails made by arranging one ingredient to fall into another and also initiate the falling of the next cocktail. You can buy special glasses to do it. Adding pyrotechnics is just icing on the cake, so to speak.
Ideal Tafarshiku is a mixologist at Studio 1806 in Pristina, Kosovo. A master of theatrics, he recently mixed 151 domino shots in one graceful move. These weren't just falling glasses- these drinks involved dry ice and burning alcohol on the bar (hence the music). Too bad the falling cocktails outran the fire. It's still an impressive accomplishment, and must have taken hours to set up. A few people pointed out that there are way more drinks made here than there are people in the bar, but it was done for the 'gram, and if it were a busy time of day, they would have never been able to set these up all the way around the oblong bar. The original video is here. -Thanks, WTM!
